This fall, you may find your favorite RV park has turned into a Halloween haven.
By Jeff Crider
September 2018
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Elaine Baptista Burnham and her brother, Michael, had a wonderful childhood. They had the great fortune to grow up at Acres of Wildlife campground in southern Maine, not far from the tiny town of Steep Falls.
Their parents were Portuguese immigrants who bought the densely forested property in 1980, when it was an abandoned turkey farm, and converted it to a family campground.
Elaine and Michael found that country living affects Halloween activities. Houses are too far apart to walk, so the only option is to drive from place to place. “In 1980, I was 14 and my brother was 7, and my mother decided to have us go trick-or-treating in the campground, because we lived so far from a city,” Ms. Burnham recalled.
Campground Party
This campground party became an annual tradition, not only on the weekend closest to Halloween, but on the weekends leading up to it. This year, Acres of Wildlife offers a zombie-themed weekend September 14-16, in which campers are invited to dress up for afternoon and evening zombie walks. The last two weekends of September, the schedule includes pumpkin carving; a free fire truck ride for kids; orange-and-black tie-dye T-shirt making; and other fun. Scary movies; costume dances for young children, tweens, and adults; and, of course, trick-or-treating also are planned.
“My campers are so fantastic,” Ms. Burnham said. “They will decorate their campsites like crazy on a Friday for the kids’ trick-or-treating on Saturday night.” To create a safe environment, moving vehicles are prohibited throughout the campground during the hours of trick-or-treating, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Kids also are given a preview of the campground layout. “At 6:00, we have a costume hayride for the kids, so they can ride around the park and see the sites that are decorated and see where they want to go,” Ms. Burnham said.
Spooky Fun All Over The Place
Many campgrounds in North America now host big and small Halloween events. Some, like Acres of Wildlife, have been doing so for a long time. For many, Halloween weekends rank among their busiest of the year. When they celebrate depends on their location.
In the Jellystone Park franchise network, the northernmost campgrounds start having Halloween weekends as early as August. That’s when the six Jellystone Parks in Eastern Canada (Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) begin costume contests; campsite decorating contests; lantern parades; and haunted graveyard walks.
Some RV parks in Wisconsin and Michigan also start their Halloween-themed weekends in August, but most campgrounds schedule such activities in September and October.
At least a fourth of the nearly 500 campgrounds in the Kampgrounds of America (KOA) network offer Halloween-related activities, including KOA campgrounds in Alberta, Ontario, Newfoundland, and Quebec. Activities typically include Halloween crafts, campsite decorating, pumpkin carving or pumpkin decorating, and trick-or-treating.
The fun at Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort includes pumpkin decorating.
Most campgrounds that offer Halloween fun do so over a period of weeks, because of the increasing popularity of the holiday. The KOA campgrounds in Emmett and Port Huron, Michigan, for instance, offer activities over five and six weekends, respectively. Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort in Santa Claus, Indiana, part of the Sun RV Resorts network, puts on events over seven weekends. Besides the typical costume contests, trick-or-treating, and campsite decorating, it hosts a kids’ carnival, golf cart glow parades, bonfire ghost stories, and dance parties.
Government-Run Campgrounds, Too
State parks and other government-run campgrounds also get in the spirit. Last year, Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, a scenic 300-site public campground near San Diego, offered its first scarecrow festival. Campers designed their own scarecrows and used them as campsite décor. The craft was particularly popular among extended-stay campers, according to Laura Koval, Santee Lakes’ director of parks and recreation. The park has scheduled its next scarecrow festival for October 27, 2018.
Lake Minden RV Resort, a Thousand Trails park in Nicolaus, California, will keep RVers busy over three weekends in October, with activities such as making Halloween crafts and decorations; a ghost and goblin scavenger hunt; a chili potluck social; Halloween candy-bar bingo; and a “scared silly” movie marathon.
If you can shriek loudly, try 49er Village RV Resort, a Sun RV Resorts park in Plymouth, California, where a “best scream” contest is held on Halloween-themed weekends.
At the Jellystone Park At Kozy Rest in Harrisville, Pennsylvania, park staff spend weeks converting the campground’s pavilion into a haunted house for the kiddies. Fall activities also include a hayride and a maze that is the length of three football fields. Kozy Rest received the 2017 Park of the Year award from the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds and is always geared for family fun.
Haunted Houses
The Hagerstown/Antietam Battlefield KOA campground in Williamsport, Maryland, offers one of the most elaborate — and frightening — haunted houses in the United States.
Creekside Manor is set up inside an old, two-story home next to the campground. It features air-driven animatronics and other professional props. The house is so scary that children under 12 are strongly discouraged from entering. (A separate fee is charged for the haunted house.)
More Fall Activities
Of course, campgrounds also celebrate the change of season with more traditional fall activities.
Several KOA campgrounds offer Oktoberfest-themed weekends with German foods, crafts, and related activities, including KOAs in Cotopaxi, Colorado; Okeechobee, Florida; and Connellsville, Pennsylvania.
Whispering Hills Jellystone Park near Big Prairie, Ohio, holds an Apple Dumpling Festival during the last weekend of September. It’s been a family tradition for more than 50 years. The park’s recreation director, Kaitlyn Kindy, said, “We make apple butter over the fire and it cooks all day and guests can help stir it.” The park also entertains guests with wagon rides powered by Percheron horses, and a little straw maze for tots, which complements the park’s 8-acre corn maze.
The Sioux Falls Jellystone Park in Brandon, South Dakota, also has a corn maze in September and October. It complements the park’s fall activities, including its “Mutts in the Maze” event, set for October 7 this year. Guests are allowed to bring their furry friends, and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Sioux Falls Humane Society.
Finally, consider a campground that is on the grounds of a theme park. Darien Lake Theme Park Resort in Darien Center, New York, presents the “Thrills by Day and Fright by Night” event. It runs for five weekends beginning September 28, 2018. The nighttime activities are said to be so scary that they are not recommended for children 12 and under. Daytime activities include a trick-or-treat trail and other fun things just right for the younger set.
Wherever you go this autumn, don’t miss your chance to join in some Halloween or fall activities at the campground. It’s all treats and no tricks!